Vodafone goes to Glastonbury

Talking of companies with grubby tax records and Glastonbury, has Vodafone been trying to pretend it was able to get its customers into the festival?

Back in February, this message appeared on the Glatowatch forum:

Hi there,

I'm Natalie S and I do PR for Vodafone, and we wanted to share this link with you: [link to Vodafone video]

It shows Jenson Button & Lewis Hamilton setting up camp at their favourite music festival early... very early.

If you want to get your hands on tickets for some of Britain's hottest festivals this summer before they go on general sale, visit [link to Vodafone website]

Now, it's a bit spammy - Natalie S hadn't posted before, and hasn't posted since; and Vodafone don't have any tickets for Glastonbury so it's a bit off-topic for a Glastonbury board. But, to be fair, there was no suggestion there that there would be Glastonbury tickets for Vodafone customers.

The linked video was this one, which shows Jensen Button and Lewis Hamilton setting up a tent in a field having arrived early for a festival. Like how Vodafone customers get their tickets early. Aaaaah.

Again, the video is scrupulous in not claiming that there are any Glastonbury tickets available. Because they don't.

But hang on... what's this down in the tags on the Official Vodafone YouTube channel?

Let's look a bit closer...

Yes, Vodafone have added the word "Glastonbury" to the tags, which means while their video has been scrupulous in not pretending to have tickets they don't, somehow they're still hoping to drag people to their site using the Glastonbury name.

It's not illegal, but it's certainly murky behaviour. And those events who Vodafone are sponsoring might feel a bit miffed that the company thinks their brands aren't interesting enough to merit a tag on the video. It's a bit like discovering your husband has written someone else's wife's name in his wallet.